4 Lives by Theodora Skipitares & Sxip Shirey

4 Lives is a beginning sketch of a work about Pythagoras’ belief that we each experience 4 lives: as a mineral, vegetable, animal, and human. I have added the oldest life form of all: fungi.

Theodora Skipitares is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and theater director based in New York. She is the author/director of 30 performance works. A resident artist at La MaMa Theater. Ms. Skipitares has presented her work in Greece, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Iran, Brazil and the West Bank. Her visual work has been exhibited widely in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.  Ms. Skipitares is a Professor at the Pratt Institute.

Gene ‘Sxip’ Shirey is a composer and performer based in NYC. Shirey has performed around the world. His work utilizes found objects, traditional instruments, computer and re-imaged instruments such as Industrial Flutes, Bullhorn Harmonicas, Regurgitated Music Box, Triple Extended Pennywhistles, Miniature Hand Bell Choir, Obnoxiophone, Glass Bowls With Red Marbles, and a clutch of curious objects.

She by Jane Catherine Shaw

An elephant, a fisherman, 3 giant Venus figurine heads and texts from 1930’s-1950’s marriage/wedding night manuals: shake and serve….

Jane Catherine Shaw is a member of the now-shuttered Lincoln Center Directors Lab and graduated on the Dean’s List with an MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College. She is the curator of La MaMa’s Puppet Slam and has been working as a puppetry artist for 30 years.  She is currently working on her paper The Puppet Body as Archive of Performance for publication in a collection of essays. Ms Shaw is a recipient of the 2023 Ruthie Award.

The Evolution of Life by Shraddha Tiwari

If you look below the surface of the incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu,  you might notice a distinctive similarity between the gradual progressions of his avatars and the theory of evolution proposed by Darwin. Tiwari creates and performs with masks that draw parallels between the two, in theory, and mythology.

Shraddha Tiwari is an experimental filmmaker, storyteller, and puppeteer – and currently working in a Non-Profit Art organization as the Art Co-Director. Trained as an Animator, Shraddha has always been interested in exploring material and using it in filmmaking and her performances. She is eager to uplift traditional art forms while sharing her creativity and experience.

Crow Songs by Accra Shepp

Accra Shepp invokes the language of myth in his new piece, “Crow Songs”, where singing has the power to move the heavens. Told in a simple vignette, this shadow puppet piece features a girl whose voice calls to the world in the language of children’s songs. The world answers back in surprising ways.

Artist, writer, Accra Shepp, has brought theater into his practice. Accra performed in La Mama’s 2014 Puppetry Slam and was featured in “Tip of My Tongue” (2017) an experimental film by Lynne Sachs which premiered at MoMA. His photographs are in the collection of the MoMA, The V&A, and the Art Institute of Chicago among others. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and the New York Review of Books He is currently the recipient of the Cullman Scholars Fellowship at the New York Public Library.